Overtime pay calculator
Overtime is 1.5 times your regular rate, not your hourly rate. If you got a bonus this week those are different numbers, and the gap is money you are owed.
Daily overtime is state law
Federal law has no daily overtime at all. These are the states that add one, and they do not agree with each other. Everywhere else the 40 hour weekly rule is the whole story.
Federal (FLSA) only
No daily overtime. Time and a half after 40 hours in a workweek. This is the rule in most states.
California
Time and a half after 8 hours in a day, double time after 12. On the 7th consecutive day in a workweek the first 8 hours are time and a half and everything beyond 8 is double time.
Alaska
Time and a half after 8 hours in a day, and after 40 in a week. No double time provision.
Nevada
Time and a half after 8 hours in a day, but only for employees earning less than 1.5 times the state minimum wage. Above that threshold the weekly rule alone applies.
Colorado
Time and a half after 12 hours in a day, or after 12 consecutive hours worked, whichever gives the greater amount. No double time provision.
The regular rate is the whole problem
Almost every overtime calculator multiplies your hourly rate by 1.5. That is right only when your hourly rate is your entire compensation, and for a lot of people it is not.
The Fair Labor Standards Act does not say time and a half of your hourly rate. It says time and a half of your regular rate, and 29 CFR 778.109 defines that as your total straight-time compensation for the workweek divided by the hours you actually worked.
With a flat hourly wage and nothing else, the two are the same number. Add anything that counts as compensation and they separate.
A worked example
You earn $20.00 an hour, you worked 50 hours, and you earned a $100 production bonus.
- What a simple calculator says
- 40 hours at $20.00 is $800, plus 10 hours at $30.00 is $300, plus the $100 bonus. $1,200.00
- What the FLSA says
- Straight-time compensation is $20.00 × 50 hours plus the $100 bonus, so $1,100. The regular rate is $1,100 ÷ 50, which is $22.00, not $20.00. The overtime premium is half of that on 10 hours, so $110. $1,210.00
Ten dollars, on one week, for one person. Across a year and a workforce it is not a rounding error, and it is the single most common wage-and-hour underpayment there is.
Why the premium method
This tool pays every hour at the regular rate first, then adds an extra half rate on overtime hours and an extra full rate on double-time hours. That reaches the same total as multiplying by 1.5 and 2, and it is how the regulation frames it and how a payroll register shows it, so you can check the arithmetic line by line against your own paystub.
Where this tool will mislead you
It assumes you are non-exempt. If you are exempt, none of this applies, and being salaried does not settle the question on its own.
It calculates one workweek. Overtime is never averaged across two weeks, so a biweekly paystub has to be checked as two separate weeks.
It covers four states plus the federal rule. Local ordinances, union agreements and industry-specific wage orders can all add requirements. California in particular has separate wage orders by industry with their own provisions.
It is not legal advice. If you think you have been underpaid, your state labor department and the federal Wage and Hour Division both take complaints, and both are free.
Terminology
- Regular rate
- Total straight-time pay for the workweek divided by hours worked. The basis for all overtime.
- Non-discretionary bonus
- A bonus you were promised or could expect. Production, attendance, safety, quality, shift differentials. Must be in the regular rate.
- Discretionary bonus
- Decided after the fact with no expectation on your part. Genuinely rare, and excluded from the regular rate.
- Workweek
- A fixed, recurring 168 hour period set by the employer. Need not match the calendar week or the pay period.
- Non-exempt
- Entitled to overtime. The default; exemption has to be established, not assumed.
Questions about overtime
How do I calculate time and a half?
Multiply your regular rate by 1.5, then multiply by the overtime hours. The catch is the first number: the regular rate is not always your hourly rate.
Under 29 CFR 778.109 the regular rate is your total straight-time pay for the week divided by the hours you worked. If your pay for the week is nothing but your hourly rate, the two are identical. Add a bonus, a shift differential or a second rate and the regular rate is higher, which makes your overtime higher too.
Does a bonus change my overtime pay?
A non-discretionary bonus does, and it is the most commonly missed money in a paycheque. That means any bonus you were promised or could expect: production, attendance, safety, quality, or a shift differential.
It gets spread across every hour you worked that week, raising the regular rate, and the raised rate applies to the overtime premium as well. A $100 production bonus on a 50 hour week lifts the regular rate by $2.00/hr and adds $10.00 to the premium on those ten overtime hours.
A genuinely discretionary gift, decided after the fact with no expectation, is excluded.
Is overtime after 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week?
Federal law says 40 hours in a workweek and has no daily overtime at all. A 12 hour day followed by three short days is not overtime federally.
Daily overtime is state law. California pays time and a half after 8 hours and double time after 12. Alaska and Nevada pay time and a half after 8. Colorado pays after 12. Everywhere else the weekly rule is the whole story.
Do daily and weekly overtime stack?
No, and this is where calculators overpay. Hours that already earned daily overtime are not counted again toward the 40 hour weekly threshold.
Only straight-time hours count toward the 40. Otherwise a Californian working four 11 hour days would be paid an overtime premium twice on the same hours, which is not what the law provides.
What is the 7th consecutive day rule?
A California provision. If you work all seven days of a single workweek, then on that seventh day every hour is overtime: the first 8 hours at time and a half, and anything past 8 at double time.
It is the workweek that matters, not any seven days in a row across two weeks, and this calculator only applies it when all seven days have hours entered.
What is a workweek?
A fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours: seven consecutive 24 hour days. Your employer chooses when it starts, and it does not have to match the calendar week or your pay period.
This matters because overtime is calculated per workweek and never averaged across two of them. A biweekly pay period holds two separate workweeks, each tested against 40 hours on its own.
Am I entitled to overtime at all?
Only if you are non-exempt. Most hourly workers are. Being paid a salary does not by itself make you exempt: exemption requires meeting both a salary threshold and a duties test for an executive, administrative, professional, outside sales or computer role.
Job titles carry no weight here. A "manager" who mostly does the same work as the people they nominally supervise is often non-exempt and owed overtime. This tool assumes you are non-exempt.
What if I am paid two different rates?
Then your regular rate is the weighted average of them across the week, not whichever rate you happened to be earning when you crossed 40 hours.
This version handles a single hourly rate plus a bonus. For genuinely dual-rate weeks, total all your straight-time earnings, divide by total hours, and enter that figure as the hourly rate with no bonus. The result is the same.
Where these rules come from
The regular rate definition and the premium method are from the Fair Labor Standards Act as implemented in 29 CFR Part 778, in particular §778.109 on the regular rate and §778.208 on bonuses. The federal 40 hour threshold is 29 USC §207(a).
California daily overtime, double time and the seventh-day rule are Labor Code §510. Alaska, Nevada and Colorado daily rules come from their own state wage and hour statutes. All are public law.
This is a calculator, not legal advice, and no page can be current with every local ordinance and wage order at once. If a figure here disagrees with your paystub or your state's labor department, tell me and it gets fixed.